Tears of a Navigator as She Falls to the Ground
by This Is A Test Tai
Summary: As she's about to graduate to college, Nami meets the most talked-about kid in their class and joins him as he builds the friend group to last a lifetime. High school AU that follows the canon fairly closely, some Sanami towards the end. Like reality unless noted.
1. There's No 'I' in Team

Nami wasn't sure what the deal with this "Straw Hat" kid was.

Everyone else at their school was talking about him. Although Nami was a senior and would be graduating at the end of the year-ten months couldn't pass fast enough-she'd just transferred last year, so she didn't have any idea who was a good source for gossip and who was completely unreliable, aside from a long-nosed junior who everyone said was full of shit. From the general conversation, though, it seemed like every week this guy got himself into some violent mess and always came out without a scratch. The stories, as usually happens with rumors like this, were generally outlandish and absurd.

"I heard he stopped a bank robbery by impersonating the robbers!"

"_I_ heard that he beat up some poachers for attacking a rare bird!"

"Did you see him diss that newscaster to her face on TV?"

Nami, personally, didn't see what all the fuss was about. About a week ago, when everyone was saying he'd been on TV, she'd managed to pick him out in the halls, and frankly, he wasn't all that impressive. She'd sort of been expecting someone out of a movie, with tattoos and piercings, who looked like they were being played by an actor ten years out of high school, but she had been woefully disappointed. The Straw Hat kid had a fresh, childish face without so much as a hint of stubble, with straight black hair, and a vacant look in his eye, not like he was lost in thought so much as like he didn't have much to think about at all. He did have a straw hat-no one could say why, maybe he was determined to make it "his thing", like how some kids' "thing" was eyeliner, or wearing a Naruto jacket every single day.

And so it was that on the last Tuesday in September, while everyone else talked about this Straw Hat kid, Nami chose to focus on her very peculiar hobby instead. She found a table in the cafeteria with two girls she didn't know too well-a junior with blonde hair in a ponytail and an athletic bag, and a sophomore with short blue hair and a T-shirt that said "SAVE THE PANDAS". With only a cursory greeting to the two girls, Nami set down her notebook and flipped it to a blank page.

Nami was a shoplifter. To be clear, she was a damn good shoplifter. She'd started a couple years ago, when she was in middle school, and had found she had a knack for it. No one expected a little white girl to steal, so she would walk out of every store with as many small toys and candies as she could fit in her pockets. A lot of the time she didn't even want the stuff; it was mostly just to see if she could get away with it. She never got in trouble for it; even if her mother spotted her trying to do it, she would just put the item back on the shelf and move on. When she got older and fell into the only age bracket where store owners would regard her with suspicion, she found she had to get smarter. She'd also started making a profit off it, by selling the stuff she swiped online. Nowadays, shoplifting was almost a full-time commitment. Just yesterday, she'd spent four hours wandering around the mall, taking note of managers' schedules, what was or wasn't tagged, and where there were small items she could easily fit into her purse.

And this is what she wrote in her notebook. She'd spent the end of last summer back home on the shore, so she had to take note of what had changed since she'd left. She drew several lines in a grid, then wrote down the times she'd been there by the half-hour. She couldn't feasibly get there earlier than 4 o'clock, and the mall closed at eight, so she wrote that down. Then she wrote down the stores that interested her; Hot Topic, Barnes & Noble, FYE, Borders, maybe Claire's if she was bored. Then the real work started.

Hot Topic was her favorite place to steal from. She wasn't dumb enough to swipe a T-shirt or anything like that-they were too big, too expensive, and likely to be tagged; you didn't get to be an eighteen-year-old shoplifter with a clean track record by pulling stupid stunts like that. But there were plenty of small knick-knacks and decent jewelry there that was easy enough and plenty of shelves to hide behind while she put them in her purse. While she was there, Nami had seen a middle-aged manager who'd spent pretty much the whole time she was there giving her the evil eye. (Nami didn't steal anything when she was scouting places out, of course). However, at about 5, he wasn't anywhere to be seen, replaced by another manager, a thirty-year-old with a mohawk who had spent the entire time she was there flirting with some girl. Nami was pretty sure she could sneak past that guy.

The strawberry blonde thief was in the process of writing all this information down in her notebook when one of the girls at her table-the blonde-suddenly cried out.

"Luffy!" she shouted, waving frantically. "Hey!"

Nami looked up. The Straw Hat kid was standing at the other side of the cafeteria, looking lost and holding a tray that looked like he'd gone through the line twice. He looked in their direction, then raised his hand, his expression blank.

"You know him, too?" the blue-haired girl asked.

"Of course I do," the blonde said, whipping her ponytail over her shoulder. "Why, do you?"

The other girl brushed her short hair as though she were suddenly someone very important. "You know that whole thing with the poachers? _I_ was the one who told him about that bird."

"Yeah, right," the blonde said.

The blue-haired girl raised her hand and waved to the Straw Hat kid. "Hey, Luffy!" she called. "Come sit with us!"

The Straw Hat Kid, still scanning the room, made his way over to their table and sat between Nami and the girls. He was barely as tall as Nami, and looked like he still had a persistent summer tan, although Nami thought he might just be ethnic. He was wearing a red baseball T-shirt with the number "01" emblazoned on it, and capris and sandals, even though it was late September. As always, he wore his yellow straw hat like a statement, hanging by a string on his back and not matching anything else in his outfit. Now that she was seeing him up close, Nami noticed that he also had a scar under his left eye where he'd gotten stitches.

"Hey, Ann," he said to the blue-haired girl.

The blonde looked shocked for a second, then leaned over the table and addressed Luffy as if they were good friends who'd been meaning to catch up for a while. "Hey, Luffy," she said. "How's your semester going?"

"Okay," Luffy said flatly as he shoveled mashed potatoes into his mouth, all the while looking over his shoulder, as though he was trying to find someone. Nami rolled her eyes. She did not have the patience today to watch these underclassmen compete over the attention of this kid who was clearly completely uninterested.

"Did you join any clubs?" the blonde pressed. Luffy tried to respond, but it got garbled between the food in his mouth. "Just 'cause, after seeing you in action, I'm sure the kendo club would be happy to have you-"

"You're in the kendo club?!" Luffy suddenly shouted, spraying food all over the table between them. Nami grimaced, pulling her lunch tray away from the splash zone.

"Yeah!" the blonde said, her face turning pink. "Remember how I told you I did staff training in tai chi for two years, and then they opened a kendo dojo up near the Shopping Center-?"

Luffy slammed both of his hands on the table, upsetting his own food as well as Nami's. "Do you know the toughest guy in school?" he asked pointedly.

"Uhm…" the blonde scratched her nose uncomfortably. "I don't know...I'd try asking the kids who hang out under the bleachers, they probably-"

"I need to find the toughest guy in school," Luffy explained. "He goes to kendo club."

"Oh!" the girl said, happy she could be of help. "Well, what's his name?"

Luffy sat back down. "I don't know his name," he said, as though it were a completely irrelevant question. He picked up one of the soggy chicken tenders from his tray and started eating it.

"Well, if you can't tell me his _name_…" the blonde began.

"He's really good with a sword," Luffy interrupted. "Probably the best."

"I don't-"

"And he has green hair."

The blonde girl's face lit up. "Oh!" she said again. "I _do_ know him! He's that transfer student who started coming to club a couple weeks ago!"

The Straw Hat Kid grinned so wide, it seemed to take up half his face. "You do know him?!" he said excitedly, leaning forward again. "Is it true he can use two swords at the same time?"

"He can use _three_," the blonde said triumphantly.

"That sounds fake," the blue-haired girl grumbled.

"Where is he?" Luffy asked, eating his pudding in one gulp, as though he were going to dash over to wherever this guy was right away.

Now the blonde girl frowned. "Well, didn't you hear?" she asked. "He got suspended. They found a knife in his locker yesterday, the cops were here and everything."

Now Nami looked up. She'd been trying desperately to occupy herself with her notes, but it sounded like this conversation was actually getting interesting. Moreover, she actually did see the cops at one of the senior's lockers yesterday, so maybe there was some truth to this story.

"That's dumb," Luffy said.

"It was," the blonde girl said, although Nami suspected that she'd mistaken Luffy for referring to the transfer student's actions rather than the concept of him getting suspended. "And what's more, because he's a foreign exchange student, the agency is talking about sending him back home."

"What? They can't!" Luffy declared. "How can I find him?"

"I might know," the blue-haired girl piped up. The other two turned to her. "Well, you said he was a foreign exchange student, right? Well, my mom's friend took in a foreign exchange student this year, I'll bet it's the same guy."

"It must be!" the blonde said.

"Who is it? Where do they live?" Luffy asked.

"You know where Harrison Street Park is?" the blue-haired girl asked. "They live right across from it, in the blue house."

"Thanks!" Luffy stood up to leave.

"Wait!" the blue-haired girl said. "Why do you need to find this guy so bad?"

"Easy," Luffy said. "I'm recruiting him." He punched his own hand, then grinned as he made his dramatic declaration. "He's going to join my soccer team."

"...What?" Nami said. Luffy turned to him, as though noticing her for the first time. "That's what this is about?"

"Yeah," Luffy said. "I'm the captain of the soccer team, and I want him to be on my team."

"Isn't the coach supposed to be the one who recruits for the team?"

But Luffy had already turned his back. "See ya!" he called as if he hadn't heard her say anything. As he trotted off, and Nami wondered if he was going to skip class to find this guy.

"Oh my god!" giggled the two girls, and they immediately began to gush about the so-called "living legend" that had deigned to speak to them. Nami, seeing that she was going to get no more work done, put her notebook back in her backpack and stood up from her seat.

_What a weird guy…_ she thought, but against her better judgement, she found herself invested in whether or not he'd be able to find this guy he was looking for or not.

* * *

It was way too nice out to be cooped up at work. It had been raining all month, and people had been going on and on about the hurricane that might be hitting them, but that day the sun had come out, and it looked liked their part of the state had missed the hurricane altogether. That was perfectly fine with Sanji, but it would have been nice if the sun had come out yesterday, or tomorrow, when he was off work, rather than forcing him to sit in the diner and glare out the window at the last rays of the fall sunset.

"Hey!" barked a voice from the kitchen. "I'm not payin' you to sleep at the counters!"

Sanji turned to glare at his boss, a squat blond man with a handlebar mustache and a prosthetic leg, his hands on his hips as he glowered at his young employee. Sanji had known Zeff for something like a decade now, when the old bastard moved into the house down the street from his mom's. He remembered when he'd opened up this diner, and he'd watched it grow over the years. So, when he had decided to take a year off before going to college-he'd considered not going to college at all, but his mother insisted, and taking a year off had been the compromise-Zeff had offered him a job waiting tables at the diner. It was a good way to make money, but Sanji was more than a little sick of watching his days pass him by. He'd say that was the reason for his constant jibes at his boss, if not for the fact that he'd been calling the old geezer names since he knew how to take the child-blocks off his mom's T.V.

"My bad, old man," Sanji sneered. "I'll get to attending _all these customers_." He gestured widely at the empty diner.

"Watch your mouth, boy," Zeff snarled. "You best not be wasting time. Go wipe down a table or something."

"I'll show you wiping something…" Sanji growled as he walked around the counter.

"What was that?" barked Zeff.

Sanji shouted, "I said eat me, crap-geezer!"

If Zeff meant to kick his ass, Sanji was saved by the bell ringing, and the arrival of two customers. Without bothering to see what Zeff was doing, the lanky blond waiter walked over to greet them.

"Welcome to Baratie," Sanji said with an exaggerated smile. "You can sit anywhere you like."

"Cool," said one of the boys. He was shorter than Sanji, with jet-black hair, a T-shirt with a "01" on it, and a straw hat, as though he'd just come in from farming. Sanji noticed that he was wearing sandals, which was weird given how cold out it was getting.

The other guy stood out even more. He was about Sanji's height, and was wearing black jeans and a T-shirt with the cover to Amon Amarth's latest album, with the sleeves ripped off to show off his biceps. He had studded wristbands, three piercings in his left ear, and his hair was bright green, reminding Sanji vaguely of the green Power Ranger from _Time Force_.

_Poseur,_ Sanji thought, following the two of them with a stack of menus. "Can I start you guys off with some drinks?" he asked as they settled down in their seats.

"I'll have a milkshake!" the kid with the straw hat declared.

Sanji grimaced. Milkshakes were easily Sanji's least favorite thing on the menu, as they were the only thing he was expected to prepare himself, rather than just pour them out from the fountain machine. Fortunately, he had a go-to excuse for cases like this. "Sorry, guys," he lied, "our freezer's broken. All the ice cream's got really bad freezer burn."

"Aw, man…" the dark-haired boy said. "Oh, well. I guess I'll do a Coke, then."

"Good choice," Sanji said, satisfied. He turned to the punk. "And you?"

"I will just have a water, please," he said. Sanji nodded. As he walked over to the fountain machine, he wondered if that guy was on some kind of low-sugar diet. He poured both drinks, then headed back to the table, where the boys were already deep in conversation.

"Why did you bring me here?" the green-haired guy was asking in a slight accent.

"Because," the straw-hat guy said, "I'm _hungry._"

"Are you guys ready to order?" Sanji asked, setting their drinks down. Only now did the kid with the straw hat pick up his menu.

"I think we will need a minute or two," the green haired guy said.

"Alright, just wave me down when you're ready," Sanji told him, then headed back to his corner. Even all the way over at the counter, he could still hear their conversation pretty clearly. _That kid has no indoor voice,_ Sanji thought to himself as he sat propped himself up against the counter and went back to staring out the window.

"What I meant was," Green Hair pressed, "why did you show up at my house?"

"Because you're the toughest guy in school," Straw Hat assured him, as though this was self-explanatory.

Sanji's ears perked up. "I may be," Green Hair admitted. _Wow, cocky much?_ Sanji thought. "That still does not answer my question, though," Green Hair continued. "Why were you looking for me?"

Straw Hat leaned forward, and when he spoke, his tone was serious, as though he were making some kind of long-term proposal. "I want you…" he explained, "to join my soccer team."

Sanji almost laughed out loud. _Is this kid serious?_ he wondered. Green Hair seemed to have the same question.

"You went to all this trouble, just to ask me to join your club?" he asked, his voice full of mirth.

"It's not a club, it's a _team_!" Straw Hat insisted. Sanji was a little lost as to what the distinction was. "I'm assembling the strongest soccer team our school has ever seen, and for that I need the toughest guy in school!"

Green Hair chuckled. "Well, even if I wanted to, I could not…" he said.

"Why, because of the kendo club?" Straw Hat asked dismissively. "They don't even have matches!"

"It is not that," Green Hair said. "...Don't you know?"

"About what?" Straw Hat asked. "The suspension?"

"Hey." Sanji turned around to see Zeff, standing behind him with his hands on his hips. _Just when things were getting interesting,_ Sanji thought. "Are you going to get those guys' order, or just sit there and drool?" Zeff asked.

"I just checked on them!" Sanji hissed.

"_Check again,_" Zeff demanded. Sanji rolled his eyes, then walked up to the two boys again.

"Who cares about-" Straw Hat was saying, but Green Hair looked up at Sanji as he approached them.

"Ready to order?" he asked.

"_Yes._" Straw Hat said definitively. He then proceeded to order a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, which came with fries, as well as a side of mac-and-cheese, and then an order of pancakes.

"That's...a lot of food," Green Hair said, raising his eyebrow. "Are you sure you're gonna be able to eat all of that?" Straw Hat just grinned widely at him. Green Hair turned to Sanji. "I'll have the grilled chicken breast," he said.

"Alright," Sanji said, "that'll be right out." He headed back to the kitchen and slapped the order down for Zeff. "Yo, crap-geezer," he called. "Order up."

Zeff grunted at Sanji, but he didn't stick around to hear his complaints, going back to his perch where he could listen in on the two patrons.

"Who cares about the stupid suspension?" Straw Hat was asking. "You don't have to go to school, just come to practice!"

"It...does not work like that," Green Hair said. "And didn't you hear? I have to meet with the foreign exchange agency on Thursday...and they will probably have me deported…"

Straw Hat scoffed. "All because you brought a stupid _knife_ to school?" he asked.

Green Hair shrugged. "They take that kind of thing very seriously…"

"Man, why would you do something like that?" Straw Hat asked irritably. "If you knew-"

"You think I would do that on purpose?" Green Hair said, and from his voice Sanji could tell his temper was rising. "I do not even own a knife."

"Huh?" Straw Hat said. "Then how did one get in your locker?"

Both of them were quiet for a second, before Sanji heard Green Hair admit, "Somebody put it in my locker."

"What?!" Straw Hat shouted. "Who?"

"I do not know for sure…" Green Hair began, then corrected himself. "No. I'm pretty sure it was some junior named Helmeppo."

Straw Hat stood up. "Well, that does it!" he declared. "Let's go find that creep and pummel him!"

"We can't just do that!" Green Hair said. "That would not solve my problem."

"Why not?" Straw Hat asked earnestly.

Green Hair whispered something that Sanji could barely hear from the other end of the room, but he could make out that it was about not wanting to prove that he was "violent and dangerous".

"I _guess_," Straw Hat said, not sounding entirely convinced. He sat back down. "But if you know it's this Helmeppo kid…"

"It was not just him," Green Hair explained. "I think his father was in on it, too. He's the policeman who went through my locker. He has it out for me."

"Why?" Straw Hat asked.

There was a loud bang on the window that distracted Sanji from the conversation. "Order up!" Zeff shouted. Sanji hopped up and went over to the window.

"Remind me never to take you on a stake-out," Sanji muttered as he grabbed the tray of food.

"What was that?"

"Nevermind." Sanji carried the food over to the two boys. Green Hair, he noticed, had pulled out his phone and was scrolling through something frantically.

"Alright," he said as he put the plates down in front of them. He'd barely set the plate in front of him before Straw Hat started wolfing down. "Anything else I can get for you guys?" Sanji asked.

"Wurr goo'," Straw Hat said through a mouth full of food. Green Hair nodded as well, and Sanji drifted back to the counter. However, by this point, he was fully invested in this story, and like hell was he going to miss the important detail of whatever Green Hair was pulling up on that phone. He grabbed a rag and made his way over to the table behind Straw Hat, making himself look busy, but all the while keeping an eye on the two boys.

"Here it is," Green Hair said, holding his phone up to Straw Hat. "This is what I'm talking about," he said. Sanji peered over Straw Hat's shoulder, squinting to make out the grainy video.

Grainy as it was, the image was clear enough that Sanji could recognize a group of girls, screaming and running around in swimsuits while some adults chased them. Except the adults weren't in swimsuits. They were in police uniforms.

The police officer chasing the kids grabbed one of them and wrestled them to the floor. Now Sanji could tell that those were not screams of delight, but of terror. Some other policemen in the video were tackling the other girls down, too. One of the police officers, the one who was clearest in view, was kneeling on the back of one of the crying girls. He looked up, directly at the camera. "Put that fucking phone away!" he demanded. The video then swung around and froze.

Sanji's heart was pounding. That video had been incredibly uncomfortable for him to watch. He glanced at Green Hair and realized he was looking at him. Sanji quickly averted his eyes and busied himself with cleaning the table, hoping that Green Hair wouldn't call him out for snooping.

"Who the hell was that?" Straw Hat boy asked. For the first time all night, his tone had turned serious. It sounded like he had been just as bothered as Sanji by that video.

"That was Helmeppo's father, Officer Morgan," Green Hair said grimly. "The girl he's kneeling on is Nina, she is from the family I'm staying with. Apparently one of the neighbors called the police because their pool party was too noisy or something...so I recorded it."

"Did you show anyone else that video?" Straw Hat asked.

"No," Green Hair said. "I was not sure what to do. I was going to show it to the police on Monday, but then the whole thing with the suspension happened…"

"Okay," Straw Hat said. "New plan. When you're supposed to have this stupid meeting with the foreign exchange whatever, we're going to show them that video." He punched his hand for emphasis.

"I...I don't think you will be allowed there with me," Green Hair said.

"I don't care!" Straw Hat insisted. "I'll punch anyone who tries to stop me! That jerk has to get in trouble for that!"

Green Hair shook his head. "You can't go around punching people," he said, "that's just going to make things worse for me."

Straw Hat groaned. "Fine, then you have to promise me that you'll do it!" he said. Green Hair didn't immediately respond. "C'mon, promise!" Straw Hat pressed.

"Who knows if it will actually do anything," Green Hair said with a shrug. "I spent all these years wanting to come to America, but now that I see it for myself...it's not what I expected."

Straw Hat put his hand on the table. "Look," he said. "Maybe there's a lot of jerks out there. But if you stick with me, I'll show you that there's a lot of good, too. Not everyone's a bad guy like that cop! C'mon," he stuck his hand out. "You and me, we can fight badguys wherever we see 'em. What do you say?"

Green Hair regarded Straw Hat's hand tentatively. He opened his mouth to respond.

"Sanji!"

Sanji looked up, his expression like a deer caught in headlights. Zeff had come out from the kitchen, his hands on his hips again. It took Sanji a second to realize that he wasn't angry.

"You wanna start mopping the floor? It's almost closing time."

"Oh, shit!" Sanji hopped up. He'd completely lost track of time as he'd been eavesdropping on the two boys. Minutes later, he'd dragged the mop and bucket out to the main floor and started cleaning, no longer following the boys' conversation. He looked up a few times to see that they were apparently still speaking in hushed, serious tones, but over the sound of Zeff cleaning the grill and his own mopping, he could no longer hear what was going on. Once the front of the store was properly mopped, he took the bucket to the back.

"You're catchin' the bus, right?" Zeff called over his shoulder.

"Yep," Sanji said as he emptied the bucket of the dirty water.

Zeff glanced up at the clock on the wall, then sighed. "Alright, you can take off."

"What?"

"Bus comes by on the hour, right?" Zeff asked. "Wouldn't want you to miss it."

Sanji sauntered into the kitchen. "Gee, thanks, crap-geezer," he said. "Who'd'a thought, you actually do have a heart after all!"

Zeff grumbled something unintelligible, and Sanji heard the bell to the front door ring. He poked his head out into the diner to see that the two boys had vacated their table. Out the window, he saw them sprinting across the parking lot.

"Hey, old man," Sanji said. "Did those two cash out?"

"Huh?" Zeff said. "No."

Sanji pursed his lips. "Shit."

* * *

On Friday morning, Nami opened her locker to pull her books out. She caught sight of herself in the mirror, and admired her brand new earrings; they were dangly, teardrop-shaped silver earrings with a round blue gem at the center. She was so engrossed in her reflection, that she almost didn't notice as the hall fell silent. She turned around and saw as two boys walked into the school. Luffy, dressed in jeans, a Flash t-shirt, and his iconic straw hat, and a green-haired boy in a sleeveless black hoodie and trip pants who she realized had to be the exchange student from the kendo club that Luffy had been asking about.

"I thought he was suspended?" she whispered to a curly-haired boy in overalls who was standing behind her. "Didn't he bring a knife to school or some shit?"

"Oh, you didn't hear?" the boy said. "He was cleared of all charges. Turns out some junior planted the knife in his locker."

Nami turned around. "Seriously?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, I heard it was all to cover up something shitty one of the cops did." Nami didn't know how much she believed that, but she would later hear that Helmeppo was expelled from their school for trying to frame a classmate, and that his dad was a police officer who got suspended for brutality. The cop got off, but she was still impressed. _That kid was able to bring down a corrupt cop and stop his friend from getting deported?_ she thought, as she watched Luffy and Zoro walk down the hall, with all the other students looking on in awe.

_Well, I'd better keep an eye on him from now on._


	2. For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic

Every fall, it was as if the fabric of reality folded to find a new place for the Spirit of Halloween store in the Bourne Shopping Center. No one could ever remember what had been there before, but it was always in a different place from last year; a store full of decorations, costume pieces, and props, with big animatronic monsters and goblins that swung side-to-side or jumped out at you when you walked past, and hanging ghosts and ghouls that played scary movie cliches on a loop, like warning you of the horrors they'll inflict on you, or singing nursery rhymes.

Nami was crouched behind a display of fake fangs, trying to take a costume out of its bag. The costumes were all tagged, but the tag was in the packaging, not the costume itself, so all she had to do was leave the bag behind and stuff the costume pieces into her biggest purse.

_Hopefully this doesn't get ruined,_ she thought as she popped her head over the display to look at the employees, who were all congregated around the register, talking among themselves.

"Man, if I see some guy in a clown costume coming up to me," one of the guys, a skinny guy with high cheekbones and a black beanie, said, miming a punch.

"Shut up, dude, this is serious," another guy, with curly red hair, said. "The police put out a statement saying if you see someone in a clown costume that's acting suspiciously, to report it immediately."

"It's probably just a Halloween prank," said a third employee, a big Hispanic guy. "Everyone's getting all worked up over nothing."

"The police said that it's some kind of gang thing," insisted the guy with the curly hair. "They said that a lot of the sightings have been connected to robberies and drug-"

"Help, 9-1-1!" laughed the guy with the beanie, as he swung around a mannequin in a monster clown costume. "There's a clown in my store!"

"Quick, I think it's a gang member!" said the Hispanic guy, laughing as well.

"You guys are assholes."

Her costume safely stashed in her bag, Nami stood up and walked out of the store, nodding to the employees, who waved back at her, completely unaware that they'd been swindled.

Halloween fell on a Friday that year, which meant that everyone was throwing wild costume parties. Nami had heard of at least three parties with open invitations, and had been handed two flyers for the same house party, but had decided against going to that one when she saw them deliberately-and obviously-skip over a long-nosed junior, seemingly because he "wasn't cool enough". So she gave both her flyers to him, and opted to go to a smaller party over by the shopping mall.

"Mom, I'm taking the car," Nami announced as she came down the stairs.

Her mother, a brown-haired woman who could have easily passed for thirty, was sitting at the dining room table, eating a tangerine over her laptop, but she quickly stood up when she heard Nami come down. "Wait a second," she called, coming into the hall. "Where are you going?" Even through the tangerine, her breath smelled faintly of cigarettes.

"A party, mom." Nami rolled her eyes.

"When'd you get this?" Nami's mom tugged on her costume. Nami had decided to go as a witch, with a wide black skirt that only went midway down her thighs, and white and green striped tights.

"I got it at the mall the other day," Nami said, exasperated. "Can I go?"

"Hold on," Nami's mother said dismissively. "Why are you in such a hurry? Do I know anyone at this party?"

Nami's mother had gotten absurdly overprotective since they moved to the area all those months ago, always insisting on knowing who Nami was hanging out with and where she was going. Nami made no attempt to hide her annoyance as she answered, "No, it's no one you know. Just a bunch of people from school."

"Will there be drinking?"

Nami shrugged dismissively. "I don't know. Probably." This was only mostly a lie. Nami was sure there would be drinking, as the guy who'd invited her had told her to bring whatever booze she could get her hands on, and she had already snagged a six-pack from the fridge in the garage and put it in the backseat of her mom's car.

"I don't want you drinking if you're going to be driving."

"C'mon, mom," Nami said irritably.

"What about a little 'puff-puff'? A little 'sniff-sniff'?"

"Mom! Jesus Christ, what do you take me for?"

Her mother gave her a look that seemed to imply something, but before Nami could properly take offense, she went into the kitchen and grabbed the key. "I want you home by 11," she said. "And if anything happens that you _can't_ drive home-"

"Mom…"

"-then I want you to give me a call. I can call you a taxi, or have a neighbor pick you up." Nami was spared from having to protest anymore as her mother gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Be safe, and have fun. I love you."

"Love you too, mom," Nami said, in spite of her irritation. She took the keys and drove to the house where the party was being thrown. It was a one-story tract house with a plastic gargoyle out front that Nami recognized from the Spirit of Halloween store. Beyond that there were a couple cobwebs on hedges, but there was nothing to really make the house stand out. Nami parked a couple houses past it, then walked up to the party. A dog I'm the neighbor's yard bounded up to the fence and started barking at her.

"Shh!" Nami hissed at the dog. "Go away!" The dog kept barking.

"Heyyy," said the guy who had given Nami the invitation. He looked Hispanic, and was wearing blue flannel and jeans, but since he had a brown wig Nami suspected it was supposed to be a costume. "Thank you so much for coming!" he exclaimed, and actually stepped forward to give Nami a hug.

"No problem…" Nami said, leaning out of his reach as she set down the six-pack she'd taken from her mom's fridge.

It wouldn't matter that she didn't know anyone there. At her old school, Nami had been an old hat at parties, and she knew how to entertain herself among total strangers. Provided that the party was competently thrown, there would be plenty of dancing and drinking to do that wouldn't require her to stop to make much conversation. From the look of it, though, she hadn't picked a competent party. There were between a dozen and twenty people there, and though some music was playing, it wasn't loud enough to engage with. The party was mostly just kids in costumes standing around, holding beers and making awkward conversation.

"You remember me?" the guy pressed. "I'm Ukkari! We have drama together."

Nami didn't take drama. "Sure."

"We were just about to fire up some beer pong. You wanna be a team?"

Actually, Nami was quickly realizing that she'd rather be anywhere but here. "Actually, where's your bathroom?" she asked. "I've been holding it since I left my house."

The host made a face, like he didn't think girls should do things like use the bathroom. "It's upstairs." Then, after thinking for a second, he almost commanded, "Hurry back!"

The bathroom was at the top of the stairs, just off to the side. Nami opened the door and sat on the closed toilet seat, opening her phone. She scrolled through her text messages, looking for anyone in her contact list who might not have plans tonight, but being the new girl at school meant that she didn't really have a lot of friends. She came to the bottom of her inbox and saw an old message from last May that she hadn't deleted, from a number she'd never saved. "_Mayb next time, then"_, it read. Nami shut her phone and dropped it back in her purse.

_Maybe I should just go home,_ she thought, _I could spend Halloween watching scary movies in my bedroom._ Just the idea sounded immensely depressing. She hadn't spent a Halloween at home since she was nine years old, and even then she would usually go trick-or-treating. She thought bitterly about her friends back home, imagining what they'd think if they saw her, Party Girl Nami, locked in a bathroom at a boring party. _No,_ she thought, _I'm not going to let this get me down. I've been to way worse parties than this and managed to turn things around._ She stood up off the toilet and stepped out of the bathroom.

"Dude…" said a guy who'd been waiting by the door, "you didn't even flush?"

"Eat me," Nami snapped, and headed back downstairs. She went into the dining room, where the host was setting up beer pong. His face lit up when he saw her.

"Nami!" he said. "I thought you might've left!"

_You have no idea how close I came,_ she thought. "Why would I?" she asked, flashing her most charming smile. The host smiled back.

"Right," he said. "Okay, so, everyone, this is Nami, she's in my drama class…" He went around the room, reciting names that Nami immediately forgot. "Nami, you wanna be on my team?"

"Dude, we're always a team!" said another guy, a black guy wearing a fake mustache, a tie, and a white shirt with suspenders. Ukkari dismissed him.

Nami cracked open one of her mom's beers and took a swig. "Sure," she said with a shrug. "Who are we playing?"

"Us."

Nami turned to see two guys in the doorway, both of whom she recognized. It was the straw hat kid, wearing an red overcoat, a fake beard, baggy pants, and a striped T-shirt. He had on an eyepatch and was grasping a fake hook in his hand. For the first time ever, Nami saw that he wasn't wearing his stupid straw hat, but instead a pirate hat, with a typical skull-and-crossbones design on the front. Behind him, looking considerably less enthused, was the green-haired foreign exchange student, wearing a black hoodie and a T-shirt that read "Dark Tranquility", probably a reference to some band Nami didn't know.

"Who are you?" the host asked.

"I'm Luffy," the straw hat kid declared, "and this is my friend Zoro. He didn't think to wear a costume to this costume party." He glared at him.

"I don't do costumes," his friend muttered.

"I'm here to beat you at beer pong!" he declared, pointing to Nami and the host.

"Big talk for a junior," Nami said with a smirk. "You wanna put your money where your mouth is?"

"Wait, we have to pay?" Luffy asked, turning to his friend.

"It's a figure of speech."

"Oh." Luffy turned back to Nami and clenched his fist in her direction. "Then, sure!" He and Nami squared up in front of their cups. She won the "eyes" challenge, and got to go first. In the first round she managed to sink one ball in the center cup, which Zoro kindly removed, and then the front cup as well. She made to shoot a third time.

"When's it my turn?" Luffy interrupted, crossing his arms.

"When she misses," Zoro said, watching the game with an air of amusement.

"You're really good at this," the host whispered to Nami.

"Shh."

"Did you, like, learn from your boyfriend, or…do you not have a boyfriend, or…?"

"I'm concentrating." Nami threw the ball for the third time, bounced it off the table, then again off the rim of one of the cups. The other partygoers let out a groan, and Luffy stepped up to throw his ball.

"Try bouncing it off the middle of the table," Zoro advised, and Luffy nodded. He spiked it right into the table, and it bounced once before landing in the front-most cup on Nami's side, eliciting a cheer from the other kids at the party. Luffy made to go a second time, but once it bounced off the table, Nami swatted it out of the air.

"Hey!" Luffy said. "No fair!"

"Actually, that's in the rules," Zoro admitted, clearly impressed. He handed Luffy a beer. "Here," he said, "you're supposed to drink when you miss."

"But I'm underage," Luffy pointed out.

"Dude, it's light beer."

Nami's team was up. "Move," she commanded as she stepped in front of the host.

"But-it's my turn-" he began, but Nami was already throwing the ball. She and the boys alternated turns until Luffy's last ball swirled around Nami's last cup. The other kids at the party cheered and Nami chugged her light beer in frustration.

"Good game!" Luffy said, following Nami into the kitchen.

"Thanks," Nami muttered, opening a second beer.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked.

"We've run into each other a couple times," Nami replied, looking up as the host walked over to them.

"Hey, do you want to dance? I'm about to put some music on in the living room."

"Maybe later," Nami said, leaning against the wall and hoping that her body language would communicate that she was wholly uninterested.

"C'mon, I'll let you pick the first song," he said. "Or if you wanna go somewhere more private…" he reached for her hand, which Nami pulled out of the way.

"She already said no," Luffy said. The host looked from him, to Nami, then nodded.

"Alright, well...if you need me…" He trailed off and walked out of the room.

"Thanks for that," Nami said. "That dude's been hounding me all day."

"No problem," Luffy said. "I hate guys that can't take a hint." Nami offered him a beer, but Luffy shook his head. "Only burnouts drink beer," he said. Nami raised her eyebrow as she sipped her own beer, but he didn't seem to know he'd insulted her, so she let it slide. "Hey, do you wanna join my soccer team?" Luffy asked out of nowhere.

Nami was taken aback, and couldn't help but laugh. "What? No. I don't play soccer." Luffy frowned, less like he was disappointed and more like he saw this as an unfortunate complication. "What's this business about the soccer team, anyway? I heard that's why you and the foreign exchange student started hanging out."

Luffy's face split into a huge grin. "There's nothing so important as a good team! A soccer team shares a bond," he said. "They work together toward a single purpose, through victory or defeat, to play the most popular sport in the world!" He pumped his fists in the air, looking off to the distance. "One day, I will make it to the World Cup and be the King of Soccer!"

"Doesn't the idea of being 'the King of Soccer' undercut what you just said about teamwork?" Nami asked, deadpan.

Luffy just smiled. "A captain is nothing without his team," he assured her. "The only way to become King of Soccer is with the support of the strongest team in the world!"

Nami sighed, barely keeping herself from rolling her eyes. "Sure," she said.

"I'm glad you agree..." Luffy clapped his hand on Nami's shoulder. "...Goalie!"

Nami smacked his hand away. "I'm not your goalie!"

"You're right, you'd probably be better as defensive midfield."

"No, I'm not joining the soccer team! I'm only at that school for another few months anyway…" Nami trailed off, catching sight of a suspicious-looking guy with dreadlocks.

"What? You're leaving?" Luffy exclaimed. "But we just met!"

"I'm gonna graduate, Luffy. I'm a senior."

"Hey." Zoro was walking up to them. "Sorry, is he bothering you?" he asked Nami.

"Not sure yet," Nami admitted.

"Zoro, meet our new midfielder!" Luffy announced. Nami opened her mouth to protest, but Zoro indicated that she was fine.

"Apparently I'm the second striker," he told her.

"And I'm center forward!" Luffy added.

"We've never played a match."

"We're going to win the entire season!"

"You're the only one on the school team!" Zoro exclaimed, and Nami felt an intense familiarity with him. At least she wasn't the only one who felt exasperated by this guy. Nami chuckled to herself, and when the boys decided to go out onto the porch, she opted to follow them. The three of them chatted for a solid hour, about school and movies and all sorts of things, and Nami found herself having an all around good time. Pretty soon, she'd almost completely forgotten about her phone and the baggage it connected her to. It was almost like she had friends again.

Of course, it was right around then that trouble reared its inevitable head.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: In no way do I encourage underage drinking. Tell your parents before experimenting with alcohol.


	3. The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You

"And then we didn't even get to use it," Luffy was saying, "'cause they let me in without any questions."

"Are you serious?" Nami laughed. She was sitting on the beam of the back porch, her witch's hat sitting on a lawn chair, talking to Luffy about how he and Zoro had cleared his name after the whole knife incident a month earlier. The three of them had been talking for well over an hour, and Nami was starting to feel a beer buzz.

The sliding door opened, and Zoro stepped out. He'd gone inside to grab beers for he and Nami, but now he was empty-handed.

"Are they out?" Nami asked.

"What? No," Zoro said. He turned to Luffy. "Hey, I think we should head out."

"What? We just got here!" Luffy said. "Why does everyone want to leave?!"

Zoro beckoned to the two of them. Nami hopped off the beam and they stepped in front of the sliding door. "You see that guy in there?" Zoro nodded to the white guy with dreads that Nami had noticed about an hour earlier.

"Yeah?"

"He's passing out molly."

Nami looked in his direction again. The guy was clearly handing a nervous-looking girl something, although Nami couldn't see what it was. Her mother's words rang in her head; she was starting to feel like getting out of here, too. She looked around for the guy throwing the party, but he seemed to be oblivious to what was going on.

"What's molly?" Luffy asked, a little too loud.

"Drugs, dude," Nami said.

"Ohhh…" Luffy watched the guy as Zoro pulled him off the porch, then around the house to the front yard. To his credit, Luffy didn't say anything else until they were safely outside, where the neighbor's dog was barking loud enough to mostly mask his complaints.

"Why do people have to do that?" Luffy asked. "We're all just there to have a good time and they have to ruin it."

"It's not our business if they wanna get high," Zoro said dismissively. "That's their idea of a good time, it's just not ours."

"I wanna punch that guy," Luffy muttered. "For ruining Halloween."

"Well it's not like they're hurting anybody," Nami piped up.

"Sure they are!" Luffy said indignantly. "They're hurting me!" Both Nami and Zoro sighed.

"Well what do you want to do now?" Zoro asked.

"I'll probably head to one of the other parties in the area," Nami said.

"Alright, then," Zoro said. "Luffy, what about you?"

But Luffy wasn't paying attention to their conversation. He was glaring at a van across the street. The guy with dreadlocks was talking into the passenger window. He must have followed Nami and the boys out of the house-Nami hoped that the neighbor's dog had been loud enough that he hadn't heard him complaining.

"Luffy, don't do anything," Zoro warned. "You'll just make trouble."

Before Luffy could do anything, the guy who'd been passing out ecstasy stepped away from the van, and both the front doors opened. From the driver's seat stepped out an unassuming curly-haired guy with what looked like bear ears on the top of his head, and an over-sized T-shirt with a picture of a lion wearing a crown.

Luffy turned to Nami and Zoro. "They're not even wearing costumes," he said. "You see what kind of person doesn't wear a costume to a costume party?"

Zoro rolled his eyes. Nami pointed at the car. "He's wearing a costume," she pointed out.

The second guy to come out of the car was wearing baggy pants and a flat-bill cap at an angle, which looked really silly, because he was white. On top of that, he had on full clown makeup, with a red nose and everything. He signalled to his two friends, and the three of them crossed the street.

"No such thing as free samples," the guy with the clown makeup was saying as he walked up to the party. The neighbor's dog barked at them as they passed, as he had at everyone else who passed his lawn. The clown walked over and kicked the dog. "Shut up!" he shouted.

Luffy gasped. The guy with clown makeup walked up to the door of the party and let himself in. Luffy clenched his fists and walked forward.

"Luffy!" Nami hissed. Luffy turned around. "I think that's the guy behind all the clown sightings people have been talking about! Let's just go."

"No," Luffy said. "I'm gonna go beat that guy up."

"How are you going to-" Nami started, but Luffy was already walking back to the house. Zoro sighed, shrugged at Nami, and followed him.

Nami let out a groan. She could easily have gotten in her car and driven home, to be sure, but a sense of curiosity-and an optimistic desire to see this clown guy get beat up-spurred her to follow the boys inside.

The clown guy was addressing the party as the three of them came through the door. He had everyone gathered in the living room, with his two flunkies-the guy with the bear ears and the guy with dreads-flanking him and blocking the passage into the room.

"It's come to my attention that _some_ of you," he was saying loudly, "prefer to get your drugs from somewhere else!"

"Look, man, I just said that to get your boy off my back," the black guy with the suspenders said.

"Ay," the guy with the bear ears pointed at him. "Quiet when the boss is talkin'."

"Thank you, Mohji," the clown said. "I can't believe the disrespect-" he began quietly to his friend, then realized this was the sort of thing he could add to his speech, and repeated it for the room. "I can't believe the disrespect this town treats its criminals with! Don't you know how important I am? You all should be bowing down when you hear my name!"

"Dude, you can't be here," the host said. "This is a private party, no one here knows you-"

"What was that?" the guy said, walking up to the host so they were barely an inch apart. "What did you say about my nose?"

"What? I didn't-"

"Listen up!" The gangster turned to address the party. Everyone was stock still and silent. "There's a new player in town, y'hear? We own this city! You want narcotics, you gotta come through me! You wanna buy a 'piece', you gotta come through me! You hold up a liquor store, it better be for me! Pretty soon every cop on the cape is gonna know about the Buggy Gang!"

"Go ahead, tell your friends!" the guy with dreads said.

"And if anyone squeals to the cops, we'll know!" the guy with the bear ears said.

Luffy turned to Zoro and then, making no attempt to keep his voice down, asked, "Who the hell is this clown?"

The room fell, if possible, more silent than before. The clown turned around to face the three of them. _Shit,_ Nami thought, _we're fucked._

"What did you call me?" asked the guy who was clearly wearing clown makeup.

"I didn't call you anything," Luffy responded flatly. "I don't even know who you are."

"I am Buggy the Gangster!" the thug shouted. "And you will show me some fucking respect or else I'll-!"

"No."

The party uttered a gasp.

"What? You can't just-"

"This guy's a loser," Luffy said, turning to Zoro, who shrugged.

Nami grabbed Luffy's arm. "Luffy!" she whispered. "Stop antagonizing him!"

"I'm not antagonizing him," he said, and by his blank expression, Nami could tell he was being earnest. "I just don't care."

"You should listen to your friend, bub," the guy with dreadlocks said. "Buggy's the toughest guy in the county."

"Quiet, Cabaji," Buggy said. He turned back to the three of them, his face wearing such a look of fury that, under other circumstances, might have been comical. "You come in here and disrespect _me_, on the day of my grand debut?" he said. "It looks like I'll have to make an example of you!"

A chant began to rise around the party. "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" they said. Buggy's face twisted into a grin.

"Luffy, let's just go," Nami whispered, but Luffy shook her off.

"Okay, Mr. Clown-Guy," he said. "I'll beat you up. But not because you asked me." Luffy stepped forward, his face grim. "It's because you kicked that dog outside. And that's unforgivable."

Luffy reared up a punch and Buggy put his fists up to defend, but before they could land a blow on each other, the host shouted.

"Wait, stop!" he shouted. Everyone turned to him. "Guys…" he said, "this is my dad's house. He'll kill me if you make a mess. Could you please do this outside?"

Buggy and Luffy looked at each other. "Do you mind?" Buggy asked.

"Yeah, we can fight outside."

"Alright, let's go." Buggy pushed past Nami and Zoro, but as Luffy made to follow, Nami grabbed his arm.

"Luffy, you don't want to do this," she said. "These small town gangster-types are really dangerous, even if you do beat them. Back in my hometown-"

"I'll be fine," Luffy said, pulling out of Nami's grip and following the gangsters outside. The party relocated to the front lawn, where Luffy and Buggy squared up against each other.

"This is nuts," Nami whispered to Zoro. "Has he even been in a fight before?"

Zoro turned to her as if she'd asked if his hook-hand was real. "Everyone talks about how many fights Luffy's been in," he said.

"Okay," Nami said, "but have you seen him fight?"

Zoro opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of meat hitting meat interrupted them. They turned to see that Luffy had decked Buggy so hard in the cheek that he actually stumbled backwards.

"Idiot! I wasn't ready!"

"Was I supposed to wait for you?" Luffy asked.

"You'll pay for that!" Buggy lunged forward, but Luffy easily side-stepped his punch and landed one in his stomach.

Nami was amazed; this kid was pretty scrappy. He had a perfect boxer's stance, and hadn't been hit once, but every punch he threw so far had landed.

"That Dutch courage sure is helping you now, ain't it, kid?" called the bear-eared guy everyone was calling Mohji.

"I'm not Dutch, I'm Brazilian," Luffy said, confused.

"He's talking about beer," Zoro called. "You know, when you drink a lot of beer and feel like you can do anything?"

"No, I don't," Luffy said. "I didn't even have any beer-" Buggy, trying to take advantage of Luffy's distraction, threw another punch at him. Luffy ducked, then hit Buggy's chin with an uppercut that actually made him catch air before falling on his ass.

"Are we done?" Luffy asked, but Buggy sat up and scrambled backwards. "Oh. Guess not."

"You made me bite my tongue!" Buggy turned to his friend with the bear ears. "Mohji, show him what happens when you disrespect the Buggy Gang!"

Mohji stepped forward. "You made a big mistake, kid," he said.

"Wasn't this fight supposed to be one-on-one?" Zoro called from the porch. Although he made no attempt to move, the other gangster stepped in front of the stairs as if to block him.

"You wanna interfere? Go ahead, try," he said. Zoro rolled his eyes.

Mohji threw a wild punch at Luffy, who ducked again and hit him in the ribs. A left hook then caught Mohji in the cheek and he was thrown to the ground, too. Buggy had taken this time to catch his breath, and then produced a pocket knife.

"Luffy, look out! He's got a-"

Buggy lunged at Luffy, who, again, sidestepped the attack, punching Buggy in the head as he overbalanced and fell on the ground.

_Wow,_ Nami thought.

"Cabaji, don't just stand there!" Buggy shouted.

"Oh, right." The guy with dreadlocks they were calling Cabaji stepped forward to help the other two against Luffy, leaving Zoro behind.

"Stay here," Zoro said over his shoulder, casually walking off the porch. Nami opened her mouth, but something told her that this guy was about as helpless as Luffy was, so she just followed Zoro off the porch instead.

Luffy was holding Mohji up by his oversized shirt, then turned to Zoro. "You're fighting, too?"

"Might as well," Zoro said, as though this was some minor annoyance. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife.

"I told you to stay on the porch!"

"Yeah, well," Zoro shrugged. "I'm not good at following orders." He opened his knife. Cabaji came at him with a flurry of punches, but Zoro managed to dodge each one. When he went for a stab, however, Cabaji managed to block it, knocking the knife out of Zoro's hand. It dropped into the grass a couple feet from Nami.

"Ha!" Cabaji said. "I've been trained in the art of fighting people with knives!"

"Oh yeah?" Zoro said, clearly uninterested. He reached into his pocket and drew a second folding knife. The crowd of partygoers gasped.

"What?!" Cabaji exclaimed. "He had a backup?"

Zoro lunged at Cabaji again, this time making several slashing motions which Cabaji was barely able to dodge. When Zoro went in for the stab, Cabaji sidestepped him and grabbed his arm, wrenching the knife out of his grip.

"Ha ha!" he said. "Now _I'm_ the one with the-" Zoro reached into his pocket again-"Oh no…"-and drew a third knife. "Are you serious?!" Cabaji exclaimed.

"This is my last one, I promise," Zoro said, grinning.

"These bastards are making fools of us," Buggy muttered. Zoro had his back to him, and so he lunged at him. "Cabaji! I'll hold him while you-"

Before he could reach Zoro, Luffy had grabbed Buggy in a full nelson. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked with a grin.

"A full nelson? Really?" Buggy scoffed. "You think an amateur move like that could hold Buggy the Gangster?" He flailed, trying in vain to pull out of Luffy's grip. "Alright, lemme go," Buggy said. Luffy didn't comply.

Zoro and Cabaji were still sparring, when Zoro caught Cabaji's hand and pressed his thumb into a pressure point inside his elbow. Cabaji let out a yelp, and dropped the knife. Zoro scooped it up and took a step back, now wielding a knife in each hand.

"Hey, Nami," Zoro called. "Toss me my knife."

Nami looked down at the knife at her feet. She picked it up, folded it closed, and then tossed it in Zoro's direction. _But wait,_ she thought, _how is he going to catch it if both his hands are occupied?_ But just as she thought this, Zoro hopped up and caught the knife in his mouth. With his teeth, he clicked the knife open again and lunged at Cabaji, swinging his arms and bucking his head in a slashing pattern.

"What the hell, dude?!" Cabaji said, dancing out of his way. "Fine! Fuck! You win!" Zoro headbutted Cabaji, and he fell backwards on the ground, where the green-haired knifemaster towered over him.

Buggy gritted his teeth. "You idiots!" he growled. "Have to do everything myself…" He reached into his pocket and drew a small pistol. At the sight of the gun, someone screamed. A couple of the partygoers ran off, while the others started to back out of the range of the gun. _Fuck!_ Nami thought. This had gotten _way_ out of hand.

"Alright!" Buggy said, pointing his gun at Luffy. "Drop to the ground before I show you the _true_ power of the Buggy gang!"

Nami half-expected Luffy to protest, but he raised his hands and sank to his knees. _Even Luffy's not bulletproof,_ she reminded herself.

Zoro took a step forward, but Buggy swung the gun around to him, and he raised his hands too.

"Good," Buggy said, "finally you assholes are showing some respect!" He pointed the gun back to Luffy. "Now, I want you to-"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence. Red and blue lights suddenly illuminated the crowd as a police car approached them from behind. One of the neighbors must've called about the disturbance.

"Shit!" Buggy shouted. He looked around frantically. "I can't deal with cops, I have priors!" He shoved his gun into his friend Mohji's chest and sprinted into the backyard. Koji dropped the gun, and someone went around the house to see where he went.

"He's frickin' gone," he said.

"Police, on the ground!" yelled an officer as the party scattered. Most of them made it away, but Mohji and Cabaji were too close to the action, and both sank to their knees with their hands over their heads.

"I knew we should have gotten a lion," Mohji muttered.

"Shut up!" Cabaji snapped, kicking his friend and earning a stern yell from the police officer.

Zoro grabbed Luffy. "Okay, we gotta go," he said.

"Huh?" Luffy said, but he didn't fight him as Zoro led him away from the house.

"C'mon, my car's this way," Nami said. The three of them sprinted down the block to where Nami had left her mom's car, each looking over their shoulders to see if the cops were following them. Fortunately, they were mostly occupied with the two gangsters, who they would end up detaining and keeping in holding overnight, which would cause a number of problems in their respective personal lives, but that's a story for another time.

They reached Nami's mom's car, and Nami shoved the key into the ignition.

"Wait!" Luffy shouted, jumping in front of the car door.

"What?"

"You've been drinking," Luffy said. "You can't drive!"

"Dude, I had a couple light beers an hour ago," Nami said. "I'll be fine."

"If you're going to imbibe, you can't drive!" Luffy declared.

"What is that, a slogan?"

"Move!" Nami probably would have kept arguing, but the situation was tense enough that she groaned and moved around to the passenger seat while Luffy took the wheel.

"Okay, hands at 10 and 2…" Luffy was whispering to himself.

"Luffy, can you drive?" Zoro asked from the backseat.

Luffy scoffed. "Like it's hard!" he said.

"Have you ever driven before?" Nami pressed.

"Sure I have!" Luffy said. "A buncha times! ...In the Walgreens parking lot."

"That's not the same!" Zoro shouted. Luffy pulled out of the spot, the car lurching forward as he intermittently stepped on the gas.

"Wait, so you're gonna make a big deal about buzzed driving, but you'll drive without a license?!" Nami asked, her voice shrill.

"All I'm hearing is you admitting that you're buzzed," Luffy said. "And buzzed driving is still drunk driving."

Luffy was an admittedly okay driver. True, it was mostly because he was a good fifteen miles under the speed limit, and there was no-one else on the road at this time of night, but besides not being able to keep the gas steady and running more than a handful of stop signs, he proved fairly competent; at least enough to get them to Nami's house in one piece.

"Park in front of the house," Nami said, as they drove up to her mom's duplex.

"You don't want me to park in the driveway?" Luffy asked.

"Better not risk it," Nami said; her neighbors were parked there. The three of them got out of the car, breathing collective sighs of relief as they leaned up against it. Unsurprisingly, it was Luffy who broke the silence.

"Nami!" Luffy said, "your hat!"

"Oh." Nami realized that she had forgotten her witch's hat back at the party. She waved a hand dismissively. "I got it for free anyway." She looked from Luffy to Zoro. "So how are you guys getting home?"

"Walking, probably," Zoro said.

"Do you live around here?"

Luffy and Zoro looked at each other. "Guess we'll find out," Luffy said.

There really weren't any other options, so Nami didn't protest. "Will you at least text me as soon as you guys are home?" she asked.

Luffy stood up. "Sure," he said as he started walking backwards down the street.

"Don't you need my number first?" Nami asked.

"Oh, right, of course." Luffy came back and handed Nami his phone. She put in her number, then did the same for Zoro.

"See you later," she said as both boys began to walk away from the house. "This was fun," she added.

"Yeah, it was!" Luffy said, grinning. "We should hang out again sometime!"

"Don't push it," Nami said with a smirk as she walked up to her house. About an hour later, Nami got texts from both boys saying that they'd made it home, and despite her dismissal, on Monday she found herself pairing up with Zoro in a few of her classes, and sitting with Luffy at lunch. By Wednesday, Luffy invited her to his house after school, and by the weekend, the three of them made plans to hang out. Over the course of the next month or so, the three of them started spending virtually every free moment together, to the point that, while Nami was hesitant to call them her best friends, they certainly didn't have any competition. For the first time since she left her old school, she felt connected to someone else, and that feeling excited her more than she was willing to admit aloud.


End file.
